Wesley looked up at me with eyes as impenetrable as a bank vault, and I responded in kind. He had signaled the first round, and we were going to come out swinging.
“I am very concerned that we’re having a problem with communication, Kay,” he began.
“My sentiments exactly,” I said with the iron-hard calm I had perfected on the witness stand. “I, too, am concerned by our problem with communication. Is the Bureau tapping my phone, tailing me as well? I hope whoever was hiding in the woods got good photographs of Marino and me.”
Wesley said just as calmly, “You, personally, are not under surveillance. The wooded area where you and Marino were spotted yesterday afternoon is under surveillance.”
“Perhaps if you had kept me informed,” I said, holding in my anger, “I might have told you in advance when Marino and I had decided to go back out there.”
“It never occurred to me you might.”
“I routinely pay retrospective visits to scenes. You’ve worked with me long enough to be aware of that.”
“My mistake. But now you know. And I would prefer that you not go back out there again.”
“I have no plans to do so,” I said testily. “But should the need arise, I will be happy to give you advance warning. Might as well, since you’ll find out anyway. And I certainly don’t need to waste my time picking up evidence that has been planted by your agents or the police.”
“Kay,” he said in a softer tone, “I’m not trying interfere with your job.”
“I’m being lied to, Benton. I’m told no cartridge case was recovered from the scene, only to discover it was receipted to the Bureau’s laboratory more than a week ago.”
“When we decided to set up surveillance, we didn’t want word of it to leak,” he said. “The fewer people told about what we were up to the better.”
“Obviously, you must be assuming the killer might return to the scene.”
“It’s a possibility.”
“Did you entertain this possibility with the first four cases?”
“It’s different this time.”
“Why?”
“Because he left evidence, and he knows it.”
“If he were so worried about the cartridge case, he had had plenty of time to go back and look for it last
fall.” I said.
“He may not know we would figure out Deborah Harvey was shot, that a Hydra-Shok bullet would be recovered from her body.”
“I don’t believe the individual we’re dealing wig is stupid,” I said.
The waiter returned with my Scotch and soda.
Wesley went on, “The cartridge case you recovered was planted. I won’t deny that. And yes, you and Marino walked into an area under physical surveillance. There were two men hiding in the woods. They saw everything the two of you did, including picking up the cartridge case. Had you not called me, I would have called you.”
“I’d like to think you would have.”
“I would have explained. Would have had no choice, really, because you inadvertently upset the apple cart. And you’re right.”
He reached for his drink. “I should have let you know in advance; then none of this would have happened and we wouldn’t have been forced to call things off, or better put, postpone them.”
“What have you postponed, exactly?”
“Had you and Marino not stumbled upon what we were doing, tomorrow morning’s news would have carried a story targeted at the killer.”
He paused. “Disinformation to draw him out, make him worry. The story will run, but not until Monday.”
“And the point of it?” I asked.
“We want him to think that something turned up during the examination of the bodies. Something to make us believe he left important evidence at the scene.
Alleged this, alleged that, with plenty of denials and no comments from the police. All of it intended to imply that whatever this evidence is, we’ve had no luck finding it yet. The killer knows he left a cartridge case out there. If he gets sufficiently paranoid and returns to look for it we’ll be waiting, watching him pick up the one we planted, get it on film, and then grab him.”
“The cartridge case is worthless unless you have him and the gun. Why would he risk returning to the scene, especially if it appears that the police are busy looking around out there for this evidence?”